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Kennedy Memoir Talks of Chappaquiddick, J.F.K. and Other Presidents

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Kennedy Memoir Talks of Chappaquiddick, J.F.K. and Other Presidents

By Carl Hulse September 2, 2009 6:29 pmSeptember 2, 2009 6:29 pm

Librado Romero/The New York TimesSenator Edward M. Kennedy with his wife, Joan, after testifying about the 1969 car accident in Chappaquiddick, Mass., that killed Mary Jo Kopechne.

In a memoir being published posthumously, Senator Edward M. Kennedy talks remorsefully about the car accident that claimed the life of Mary Jo Kopechne – a turn of events many consider a chief reason that he was never able to mount a successful bid for the presidency.

G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times

Writing in his book “True Compass,” which is scheduled to be published on Sept. 14, Mr. Kennedy, who died a week ago, described his actions in the 1969 accident as “inexcusable” and said that at the time he was afraid, overwhelmed “and made terrible decisions.”

Mr. Kennedy said he had to live with the guilt of his actions for four decades but that Ms. Kopechne’s family had to endure worse. “Atonement is a process that never ends,” he writes.

In the 532-page book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Kennedy also said he has always accepted the official findings of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, an event that he said left family members fearing for the emotional health of his brother, Robert F. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy that he often thought of one brother’s deep grief over the loss of another and said it “veered close to being a tragedy within a tragedy.”

Senator Kennedy said he had a full briefing by Earl Warren, the chief justice, on the commission’s investigation into the Nov. 22, 1963, shooting in Dallas. He pronounced himself convinced that the Warren Commission got it right and said he was “satisfied then, and satisfied now.”

Mr. Kennedy’s book provides unique details about life in America’s famous political family and covers the remarkable career that was celebrated last week in a series of memorials before his burial near his two brothers in Arlington National Cemetery. It provides his personal account of being stricken by the brain cancer that took his life and his decision to battle the disease as aggressively as he could. And he talks openly and regretfully about “self-destructive drinking,” especially after his brother Robert’s death.

The book, published by Twelve, a division of the Hachette book group, was originally scheduled to be published in 2010 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the election of President Kennedy but was moved up due to his illness. Much of the book, written with a collaborator, was based on contemporaneous notes taken by Mr. Kennedy over the years as well as hours of recordings for an oral history project.

In the memoir, Mr. Kennedy also suggests that his brother the president was growing uneasy about events in Vietnam and was increasingly convinced that the conflict could not be resolved militarily. He said his brother’s “antenna” was up and surmises that the president was on his way to finding that way out. “He just never got the chance.”

INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC

Mr. Kennedy tells of a secret meeting in the spring of 1967 between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert Kennedy, whose increasingly outspoken criticism of the war in Southeast Asia was becoming a political threat to Mr. Johnson. According to the book, Robert Kennedy proposed that Mr. Johnson gave him authority to personally negotiate a peace treaty in Vietnam. This, implicitly, would have kept Mr. Kennedy out of the 1968 race for the Democratic nomination, a prospect that Mr. Johnson had come to worry greatly about.

“If the president had accepted his offer,” the book says, “Bobby certainly would have been too immersed in the peace process to become involved in presidential primary.” Mr. Johnson could not take the offer at face value, concerned that Robert Kennedy had ulterior motives.

In explaining why he decided to run for the presidency in 1980, Mr. Kennedy explained how he was motivated in part because of his differences with then President Jimmy Carter. Among other things, he was frustrated by Mr. Carter’s incremental approach to providing universal health care coverage, saying the president’s go-slow approach was “squandering a real opportunity to get something done.” He described Mr. Carter as a “difficult man to convince – of anything.” He described their relationship as “unhealthy.” And after Mr. Carter’s famous “malaise speech,” the senator wrote, he concluded that Mr. Carter held an “inherently different view of America from mine.”

Mr. Kennedy recounts attending a dinner with Bill Clinton shortly after he was elected president in 1992 at the Washington home of Katharine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post. According to Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Clinton said at the time that if he did not get national health insurance through Congress, he should not be president.

Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesMr. Kennedy, and his wife, Victoria, were on Capitol Hill in November.

Mr. Kennedy expressed great disappointment at the ultimate failure of health care to pass during that period, though he did not place the blame for it on Mr. Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who oversaw the effort for Mr. Clinton.

Mr. Kennedy said he called Mr. Clinton immediately after he appeared on television to confess his affair with Monica Lewinsky, reassuring Mr. Clinton he would stand by the president during this difficult period.

In the midst of recounting this anecdote, Mr. Kennedy took a break to offer his views on the scrutinizing of the private lives of public officials, something to which he clearly was quite familiar. Mr. Kennedy said he had no quarrel with such inquiries.

“But do I think it tells the whole story of character? No I truly do not,” he wrote.

Mr. Kennedy notes that he had never dwelled on the reversals of his life, legislative defeats or causes unfilled and discusses how he came to endorse Barack Obama during the presidential primaries despite his close relationships with other candidates. He said he was able to persevere through his own personal faith.

“I have fallen short in my life, but my faith has always brought me home,” he said.

We can see the connection between the fact the Ted Kennedy never worked a real job in his life and was given everything with his legislative agenda just to give everybody everything — such as health care.

I look forward to reading Senator Kennedy’s memoirs. I admired him very much.

And having watched his son Edward’s funeral eulogy, I wish that Governor Patrick would consider making the younger Kennedy interim Senator. Teddy Jr. is so like his father, not only in his appearance but in his vocal timbre and delivery. As a cancer patient himself, he would have an emotional understanding of the importance of universal health care.

Wisdom is learning from one’s mistakes. Former Senator Kennedy certainly exemplified this credo. Regrettably, what happened at Chappaquiddick could never be reversed and it was only right that he was held accountable for his actions. But he strove to atone for it. I admired the man flawed as he was, just like all of us.

Isn’t it a real shame that we only speak of Kopechne’s death in relation to this man’s political career? Anyone else, from any other family would have never been let within 100 miles of public office after such a thoughtless and stupid act. This whole incident with its results smacks of an American aristocracy that should die with the late Ted Kennedy. Yes we are obliged to forgive but forgetting has shown our ability to elect pseudo-celebrities that pretend to be civil servants. I often wonder what a person with real character could have done in 40 years. Lion of the Senate?

Did Kennedy ever met with Kopechne’s parents and apologize to them or explain what actually happened that night? If not, then I don’t consider that he truly ever repented, he only went through the motions for political reasons.

Well, I hope and pray that the Senator will receive ample mercy from God. I do think that the shots of him sailing in the Cape contrasted harshly with the literally millions of live that were lost to abortion, in part because of his support for legal abortion. It’s a sad thing, and I hope that future law makers will have more courage to speak up for the ultimate “little guy”, babies in the womb.

According to the excerpts from this memoir, it seems as though Senator Kennedy wants a sort of “death bed atonement” for the death of Ms Kopechne just as he wants the same from the Pope. One could view his recent letter to the Pope as a poignant reminder of a human’s frailty or yet another instance of a Kennedy trying to use wealth and connections to buy forgiveness and station

The Kennedy brothers were always a mixed bag. What sets them apart is their determination to make the fight and their ability to convince people to rise above petty politics on occassion and pursue the loftier goal. They brought a certain grace and sense of commitment to the public arena that is in short supply. To note their failings, large and small, is only to admit that they were like the rest of us.

Flyfisher (#2), you say that it was “only right that he was held accountable for his actions” (in Chappaquidick), so tell us exactly how he was “held accountable”. And how would YOU be “held accountable” if YOU got drunk and killed a young woman in an accident?

The guy who is tired of the Kennedys is the first to comment. How ironic!

Of course they weren’t perfect. Few among us are perfect; some however have the guts to run for public office, fewer have the temperament and talent to be effective. Even fewer have the character to serve without becoming corrupted by the power of their positions.

My respect goes to the Senator who dedicated himself to a higher purpose despite his own personal shortcomings and mistakes. RIP

Mike — How much effort have you put into assuring the quality of life of those “little guys” you want to see born — including making sure they would receive quality health care throughout their lives? . When the anti-choice people take some affirmative responsibility for the lives that they insist must come into being, then it will be easier to respect their position. ——- As it stands now, however, there are proportionally MORE abortions when anti-choice Republicans are in power than when pro-choice Democrats are. Why? Because the ‘liberal Democrats’ like Sen. Kennedy provide more intelligent support for birth control and information; more effective practical support for pregnant teens, unwed mothers, and young children; more acceptance of non-traditional homes that can still result in wonderful families. —– So if you are really concerned about those “little guys” who are you going to support? The folks that say the right words but let more of them die, or the ones that actually keep more of them alive? I’m sure God can understand the complexity and contradictions, even if you can’t.

WashingtonDame, why don’t you do a little research and answer your own question. You’d find that, indeed, the senator did meet with the Kopechne’s and did apologize.

I don’t really understand this notion that what happened at Chappaquiddick should have ended his political career. W’s husband killed a man too. Should she have been denied everything she attained afterward? Her husband killed many thousands of men and etc.

Yes, he supported abortion rights. Yes he was for universal health care. Is this a reason to bash the man in death?

Mr. Merrill (#4) Ditto for the Bush family or Mr Celebrity himself; Mr. Ronald Reagan. Would you agree?
I think what Mr. Kennedy did and accomplished through 47 years of work in the senate speak for itself .

Isn’t it wonderful that Ted felt he can never atone for the death of Ms. Kopechne? A long term in jail for drunk driving, negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident might have given him the atonement he sought. But then again, he was a Kennedy and obviously the law at least as far as the citizens of Massachusetts and his liberal apologists are concerned was not applicable to him. How stupid of me.

At Baptist discussion boards and many other places I have followed discussion about the passing of Ted Kennedy.

I have come to the conclusion that most folks who cannot forgive the sins of Ted Kennedy, don’t quite understand all the wisdom to be gleaned from the stories of the Old Testament, not to mention the themes of the New.

It is a Great American Story, Shakespeare Tragegy, Old Testament Fable liken to David, that intersects the great themes of the New Testament where in convoluted ways Kennedy’s Irish struggle intersected that of Martin Luther King.
All Said, Ted Kennedy and that of his family is in a Pantheon of the American Experience and he should be celebrated for that.
The rest of you should get right with Jesus, or Lincoln or whatever is Holy to you and work, like Ted Kennedy did, to make America a better place.
As for Mike on abortion, read Gorney from Berkeley; and Cuomo and the progressive Catholics at Notre Dame.

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